Pogroms and the Geography of Anti-Jewish Violence: What Do the Maps Say?

• In Event: Pogroms of Jews in 20th Century Central Europe: Comparative Perspectives

Abstract

The spatial factor in the analyzes of anti-Jewish violence was presented especially in the studies on the first wave of pogroms against Jews in Russia. In the paper, based on the lands of the Kingdom of Poland (the western parts of the Russian Empire), from 1881 to 1914, they will present the basic elements of a geographical analysis of anti-Jewish violence, placing the issue of pogroms against a broader background of anti-Jewish violence in general, taking into account social and economic factors. An important role will be played by long-term comparative analysis, that is, taking into account data from the post-war period. The aim will be to indicate the new features of pogroms against Jews, the durability of the fashion for violence, the regionalization of this phenomenon and the dependence on social and economic factors. These are the results of new research that complements and often changes our current knowledge about the geography of pogroms and, above all, about their causes and meaning.

Author

• Artur Markowski, U of Warsaw / POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews (Poland)